Strategic Plan FY2016-FY2019

The current Multi-Year Strategic Plan that follows was approved by the university’s Emergency Management Program Committee on January 26, 2016. Prepared on behalf of Tufts University by the Office of Emergency Management.

The first strategic plan for emergency management at Tufts University, developed in FY2011, identified goals for continued growth in several areas. With the establishment of a university policy on emergency management and the convening of the Emergency Management Program Committee in 2015, the university successfully met each of the goals identified in the FY2011 Strategic Plan.

Building on that momentum, the Emergency Management Program Committee has examined the state of emergency management at the university. The university’s capabilities, program activities, recent incidents, and nationally recognized standards were reviewed. The result is this strategic plan, which outlines high-level program goals for the next four years.

The keystone goal of this plan is accreditation by the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP), whose Emergency Management Standard is endorsed by several major industry associations and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Accreditation allows the program to be recognized for compliance with the standard, demonstrating excellence and accountability in emergency management and supporting university resilience.

2016 Strategic Plan for Emergency Management

Goal 1: Enhancing Resilience

Departments must be poised to withstand interruption and sustain or rapidly resume their critical functions. The university must understand and strengthen its ability to withstand hazards that cannot be prevented, including adaptation to future changes in the region’s natural hazard risks.

1.1

Establish a university policy requiring departments with emergency responsibilities to develop continuity plans that identify and describe how essential functions will be continued and recovered in an emergency or disaster and assist those departments in satisfying the policy.

FY2016

1.2

Begin the development of a mitigation plan, to be published in FY17, that is based on natural and human-caused hazards and the risk and consequences of those hazards.

FY2016

1.3

Publish the mitigation plan began in FY16 and institutionalize a mitigation program that regularly and systematically utilizes resources to mitigate the effects of emergencies associated with the risks identified in the THIRA.

FY2017

Goal 2: Enhancing Plans

Existing planning has focused primarily on the response phase. Enhancing the institution’s ability to withstand disaster will require development of plans dealing with additional phases of incidents.

Publish a revision to the Emergency Operations Plan that includes newly-developed university support function (USF) annexes, reflects improvements to collaboration tools, updates the situation overview, and incorporates minor edits that have accumulated through exercise and incident experience.

FY2017

2.3

Implement a resource management system that identifies resource requirements, shortfalls and inventories.

FY2017

2.4

Publish a revision to the Emergency Operations Plan.

FY2019

2.5

Develop a multi-year strategic plan for 2020-2023.

FY2019

Goal 3: Enhancing the Message

The Emergency Management Program must share the message of preparedness with campus audiences, and in times of crisis, with internal and external constituencies. Participation in Program activities should expand to include more members of the Tufts community.

3.1

Develop a multi-year training and exercise plan that serves as the basis for a training program composed of training needs assessment, curriculum, course evaluations, and records of training.

FY2016-FY2017

3.2

Develop crisis communication and public information plans and procedures.

FY2016

3.3

Promote continuity planning for departments not required by policy to maintain a continuity plan.

FY2018-FY2019

Goal 4: Enhancing Evaluation

Leverage external evaluators to assess our implementation of broadly recognized best practices in emergency management, ensuring that the Emergency Management Program meets contemporary standards, and affording the university the ability to clearly communicate to students, parents, employees, and grantors the university’s commitment and achievement in preparedness.